France launches military satellite

France has launched a military satellite from the Kourou launch site in French Guiana.

The Helios 2B satellite was launched atop Arianne 5 rocket by the Arianespace centre in South America, Xinhua reported. The rocket lifted off at 1626 GMT on Friday.

The 4.2-tonne satellite, heading into sun-synchronous polar orbit, is part of the second-generation observation system for security and defence applications developed by France in collaboration with Belgium, Spain, Italy and Greece.